A group of researchers have found a sliver of good news in the disappearing sea ice off Alaska’s west coast—the ocean floor around Bering Strait still seems to be capturing billions of bits of carbon that might otherwise lead to an even warmer planet.
Graduate student Michelle Trifari is researching why Stellar sea lions located in the Western Aleutian Islands apparently carry more mercury than those closer to the mainland.
A new Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, also known as PORTS, aims to improve maritime safety and efficiency off Valdez. NOAA and the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council partnered to establish the third new PORTS system this year, the 36th in the nationwide network.
In 2012, an 85-year-old scientist and his son-in-law pulled a cylinder of muck from a faraway island. They carried it home like a newborn baby, froze it, and mailed it to a researcher across the country.
The rapidly melting Malaspina Glacier in southeastern Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park could create a new ocean bay, one feature in what may be the largest landscape transformation underway in the United States.
The ten-year project will support NSF-funded studies in one of Earth’s most remote and challenging environments.